The disappearance of childhood
by Neil Postman · first published 1982
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3HN commenters
2019–2024first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
Argues that the intrusion of television into every home introduces children too early to adult concepts and activities and subverts their ability to think abstractly, and the very concept of childhood is being destroyed.
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If you want to know the answer, read "The Disappearance of Childhood" by Neal Postman.
on “Are grownups just giant kids?” ↗I believe he discussed it at some point in, it must have been How to Watch the TV News or one of his talks. I screened my copy of Technopoly, Entertaining Ourselves to Death, and The Disappearance of Childhood. If I recall correctly he expected it would follow a similar trajectory to TV. And by far and large I would tend to agree, in fact I recall agreeing with whatever assessment he had made and being in…
on “Neil Postman: A civilized man in a century of barbarism (2003)” ↗…timeline I just gave you about illiteracy, the printing press, the enlightenment, and our 400 year old education system remains in tact. Neil postman's a good source for the history of education (see "The Disappearance of Childhood") or you can simply wikipedia it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography) There's some graphs that show how the enlightenment coincides an exponential growth in mass publication. As…
on “Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it” ↗